About Explorist, Mapsend, Pocket Queries, Geocache sizes

[+the pooks]

I am quite new to Geocaching and have worked out a few things that work for my setup.

 

I registered as a premium member so that I can obtain Pocket Queries for up to 500 caches. I downloaded Mapsend Lite from www.magellangps.com. Mapsend Lite handles Geocaches and GPX files, and I can import a detailed map from the Mapsend Streets and Destinations which was bundled with the GPS. The latter is older software which cannot handle Geocaches and requires conversin software to communicate with the unit.

 

Hopefully this information is of use to others.

 

My question is as follows: What is the maximum number of caches that can be activated in the unit. I can send a gs (the Explorist format) file from Mapsend Lite to the unit with up to 500 geocaches. But when I want to load it on the unit (Menu>Active Map>Geocaches>Select File) I sometime get the message "Some Geocache data can't be read due to size limitation". Any idea what this limitation is?

 

Thanks

Laurence

[+briansnat]

My question is as follows: What is the maximum number of caches that can be activated in the unit. I can send a gs (the Explorist format) file from Mapsend Lite to the unit with up to 500 geocaches. But when I want to load it on the unit (Menu>Active Map>Geocaches>Select File) I sometime get the message "Some Geocache data can't be read due to size limitation". Any idea what this limitation is?

 

This really belongs in the GPS Units and Software Forum.

 

Anyway, As I understand it the Magellans only hold geocache data for 200 waypoints. Maybe this is what you are running into.

[+Moose Mob]

I can get that error anywhere from 180 to 200 caches. I limit my files to 175 caches.

 

But, I can hold thousand of files. (I have a GSAK macro to create them)

 

And haven't stopped to figure out how to extract the finds and backtracks off the GPS.

 

Moving this conversation to Hardware/Software.

[+Mr. 0]

On my Explorist 600 it is limited to 200 caches...sort of. I can put 500 on there, but only the first 200 waypoints will show the actual cache detail (size, D/T, hint, etc). Also if the hints are more than a certain number of characters, it'll get cut off. I don't remember what the character limit is.

 

What I do if I need more than 200 caches for whatever reason is break them down into separate files. I usually stick to about 150 caches for each file. You can save multiple .gs files on there, or on the SD card, and then switch to whatever file you need for the area that you're in, through the menu. I think it's under the Active Setup menu, if I recall correctly.

[+embra]

Some different numbers come up in this discussion for a couple of reasons.

 

1. There are two different POIs on the Explorist. Regular POI files (.upt files) hold up to 500 POIs, but as Mr. O noted, only 200 of them can have comments. Geocache POI files (.gs) hold up to 200 POIs.

 

2. Moose Mob observed that the limit seems to fluctuate; this is usually due to child waypoints included in the query. If you try to send 200 Geocache POIs to a .gs file, but there are 20 parking coordinate POIs included, something is going to get dropped towards the end of the transfer.

[+T F T C]

It's all in the forums already.

 

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=165491

[+the pooks]

I did not realise that the topic had been moved to another forum.

 

Thanks for all the info. On another note: Mapsend Lite beautifully send geocaches, cache data and even hints in the gs files to the GPS. It would be a small extra step to include the first six cache posts as well (as Mapsend Lite does) - the Explorist already has text capability and there is lots of space on the SD drive - then one would have everything you need and a PALM or similar would not be required. I find the posts are required to find out if there was trouble with the cache.

 

Thoughts on splitting the gs files: The explorist has the ability to MARK caches that were found, so would not want a cache to be in multiple gs files. If one creates multiple pocket queries in an area (by coordinate and radius) you would get caches that could be in more than one query. OK - you can create queries by date or type that would not overlap - but what if I want to see all the queries in an area. Alternatively I wrote a small program that splits the caches along a line (vertical, horizontal or otherwise) - then one needs to remember where the line is - when you go caching you will need to activate the relevant gs file. These are just thoughts - its no particular big deal. Maybe I should spend more time caching and less bothering about the software issues - I have only found 4 caches so far.

Edited June 15, 2007 by the pooks